2024 was a banner year for movies, and we here at Conskipper enjoyed so many trips to the theater and so many different stories! With such an abundance of great films released in 2024, it was hard to decide on just ten to be our very best. Honorable mentions such as Late Night with the Devil, Civil War, Abigail, and Megalopolis easily could have rounded out spots seven to ten on our list. The list is ranked, with Number One being our pick for the best movie of 2024.
#10: Cuckoo
Featuring one of Dan Stevens’ best performances and all the proof we need that Hunter Schafer should be starring in more movies, Cuckoo is delightfully scary and weird! Director Tilman Singer perfectly captures the awkwardness of our teenage years with the most twisted coming of age story of 2024.
#9: MaXXXine
Writer/director Ti West finishes his X trilogy with MaXXXine a giallo-inspired love letter to 80s horror. While the film doesn’t exactly hit the high watermark of the previous entry, Pearl, there’s lots to love about MaXXXine, and there’s more than enough laughs and thrills to make moviegoers hope this isn’t the last collaboration we get to enjoy between West and Goth.
#8: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Featuring a return to form for director Tim Burton, an example of series leads Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder effortlessly slipping back into character perfectly decades later, and Catherine O’Hara at her absolute best, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is nothing but creepy fun for its entire runtime! Between the characters, the music, the set pieces, and the beautiful in-camera special effects, it’s hard to pick the best part of this ghostly sequel.
#7: Deadpool & Wolverine
Dropping at the height of superhero fatigue, Deadpool & Wolverine proved there are still more superhero stories to tell which will bring fans to the theater to enjoy. Genuinely funny and perfectly capturing the chemistry to the titular characters, Deadpool & Wolverine (at least momentarily) successfully revived interest in the potential of the MCU. And who could forget that little canine cutie who stole the show, Dogpool!?
#6: Strange Darling
Strange Darling simply needs to be seen to be believed! The twists and turns are part of its charm, and viewers are best served going into this one knowing nothing about it. I will say this: I really disliked the first 30-40 minutes of Strange Darling, but by the time the credits rolled I couldn’t believe what I’d just witnessed! While parts of it are definitely inspired by the 70s slashers which came before it, there is nothing quite like it!
#5: Heretic
Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, and Chloe East are simply delightful in this twisted, philosophical horror feast for the mind which draws its inspiration from the works of Joseph Campbell and ancient mythology. A lesser film would get bogged down with all of these lofty ideas but Heretic remains quick-witted and razor sharp throughout. The film offers some of the most truly horrific moments of the year alongside some of the weirdest laughs and gags of the year too!
#4: Longlegs
It was a tall order to live up to the massive hype leading up to Longlegs this summer, but writer/director Osgood Perkins delivered in spades! Longlegs is a wonderful throwback to the likes of The Silence of the Lambs while still maintaining Perkins’ singular, devilish vision as established in previous efforts such as The Blackcoat’s Daughter. Maika Monroe is one of the greatest scream queens of our generation, and her reserved and deliberate performance as Agent Lee Harker makes me really hope we will see this character on the silver screen again sometime soon. And Nicolas Cage brings his very best to his unforgettable performance as Longlegs. This is the kind of movie that will scare the hell out of you the first time you see it, but then reveal so many more tones on repeated viewings. While some of it is downright hilarious, the chills of Longlegs will stick with viewers forever!
#3: Dune: Part Two
I have a confession to make: I didn’t love Dune: Part One. I felt it wasn’t as bold as many of director extraordinaire Denis Villeneuve’s prior works and I didn’t think the film leaned hard enough into the stranger elements of the source material. Dune: Part Two made up for everything I felt was lacking in the first entry and it delivered more of everything fans expect from the classic science fiction franchise. With all of the exposition out of the way with the first movie, Dune: Part Two had the time to let viewers spend time with the characters and soak up that atmosphere of Arrakis. The high-powered additions of Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, and Christopher Walken to an already stacked cast and an emphasis on complex story over special effects (which were equally delightful, by the way) made this the best example of big-budget storytelling as a work of art. Bring on Dune: Messiah!
#2: Anora
Anora is writer/director Sean Baker’s best film, which is quite an achievement considering the quality of his filmography! This movie should make Mikey Madison an instant A-Lister, who delivers a leading performance full of nuance, hilarity, sadness, and more. Anora is so funny and chaotic throughout that it saves its greatest trick for the end of the movie. The whole while I was engaged and laughing along with these characters who I thought were Tarantino-esque caricatures, but by the final scene I realized I’d grown to understand and empathize with the characters in ways which snuck up on my through all of the comedy and absurdity. Baker is famous for selecting perfect actors for his roles and sprinkling in a handful of non-actors to flesh out the world of his film, and no movie does this better than Anora. Every performance is simply a delight to behold in this movie. There’s nothing better for viewers who want to laugh and think and feel something with a movie of 2024.
#1: Nosferatu
Nosferatu is hands down the best movie of 2024! A modern gothic delight like no other, Nosferatu draws inspiration from all of the horror classics of the 1920s-30s with a dash of The Exorcist and Stanley Kubrick. Masterfully directed and co-written by Robert Eggers, this film shows he was simply born to bring Count Orlok to our generation after his smash successes with films like The Witch and The Lighthouse. Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Willem Dafoe and more all deliver stellar performances which— coupled with set design that couldn’t have a greater attention to detail— draws the audience further and further into a dreamlike fever dream from Hell. Nosferatu can easily be appreciated by a casual audience, but it is also highly rewarding to movie afficionados who know all of the tropes of the genre and expect an elevated experience from Eggers. The Dracula story has been told and retold countless times, but I can’t think of a single thing that could be improved in this adaptation. Eggers’ Nosferatu is simply the definitive film version of this vampire story and people can stop remaking it now.